In a pioneering experiment, they demonstrated that telomere DNA from one organism, a unicellular ciliated protozoan called Tetrahymena thermophila, would protect and stabilise chromosomes in an entirely different organism, yeast.

Pick any eukaryotic species (say, the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila) — one cannot be certain that a member of that species shares common ancestry, from a discrete cell, with a member of any other eukaryotic species (say, Drosophila melanogaster).

The animal gleans the bacteria from the water with a special ciliated epithelium and secreted mucus that seems to be just the right flavor for Vibrio, and the bacteria migrate deep into the light-emitting organ.

It is clear from careful experimental work with all ciliated cells that have been examined, from alga to mice, that a functioning cilium requires a working IFT. 12 The problem of the origin of the cilium is now intimately connected to the problem of the origin of IFT.